The number of new deaths related to COVID-19 in South Africa is reaching a highly concerning level. This as the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH) confirmed 331 new fatalities have been recorded over the past 24 hours, marking consecutive days where more than 300 deaths have been reported.
As such, it looks like the delta variant of the virus is proving more fatal than previous ones.
Should these type of numbers continue, it remains to be seen what the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will do come 11th July, when the two-week long level 4 lockdown currently being enforced comes to an end.
Added to this is a continued slow rollout of vaccines, as the latest report accurate as of 17:00 on 5th July says 2 979 887 vaccines have been administered to date. It therefore begs the question as to why the private sector has not been allowed to assist government with its rollout efforts.
Either way, the rollout needs to be ramped up, especially if the third wave continues in its current fashion.
Looking at the rest of the key statistics from the report, 12 513 new cases have been recorded over the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections recorded to date to 2 075 409. The recovery rate has risen slightly to 88.1 percent and over 13.48 million tests have been conducted to so far.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 333 542 | 297 535 | 23 454 | 12 553 |
Eastern Cape | 209 861 | 193 314 | 4 581 | 11 966 |
Northern Cape | 60 333 | 53 590 | 5 341 | 1 402 |
Free State | 116 994 | 99 332 | 12 482 | 5 180 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 360 866 | 334 412 | 15 712 | 10 742 |
North West | 101 736 | 82 620 | 16 641 | 2 475 |
Mpumalanga | 99 664 | 90 983 | 7 148 | 1 533 |
Gauteng | 709 628 | 604556 | 91 469 | 13 603 |
Limpopo | 82 785 | 71 479 | 8 589 | 2 717 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 2 075 409 | 1 827 821 | 185 417 | 62 171 |
As always, in order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency
[Image – Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash]